1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a water-cooled air conditioning system, and more particularly, to an air conditioning system having a water-cooled heat exchanger having a plate-shaped heat exchanger in which refrigerant and cooling water flow in an opposite direction to each other and a plurality of performance improving devices and allowing outdoor air to be introduced into an indoor space.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an air conditioner is designed to heat or cool indoor air of an office or a house while forming a series of refrigerant cycle such as compression-condensation-expansion-evaporation. The air conditioner heats or cools air in a desired space by allowing the refrigerant to be heat-exchanged with the air.
Recently, as the quality of the life is improved and in response to the needs of the customers, in addition to the air cooling/heating function, the air conditioner also provides a variety of other functions such as an air cleaning function for discharging purified air into the indoor space after filtering off foreign objects contained in sucked air or a dehumidifying function for discharging dry air into the indoor space after changing humid sucked air into the dry air.
As is well known, the air conditioner is generally classified into a split type air conditioner where the outdoor and indoor units are separately installed and an integral type air conditioner where the outdoor and indoor units are integrally installed. The split type air conditioner has been widely used due to its advantages in terms of an installation space and noise.
In order to substitute for an air-cooled air conditioner where the refrigerant is heat-exchanged with air for the air-conditioning of the indoor space, a water-cooled air conditioner where the refrigerant is heat-exchanged with water has been increasingly developed. The water-cooled air conditioner is under active development as an alternative for overcoming excessive power consumption problem of the air-cooled air conditioner.
Merits of the water-cooled air conditioner compared with the air-cooled air conditioner are that a size is relatively small, noise is relatively low, and air is effectively conditioned. Therefore, as the construction of the big buildings and apartments increases, the production and development of the water-cooled air conditioners are on the increase.
The conventional water-cooled air conditioner typically includes a plurality of components such as a compressor, a heat exchanger, and the like.
The refrigerant compressed in the compressor flows into the heat exchanger to be heat-exchanged with the water.
The water and the refrigerant separately pass through the heat exchanger without being mixed with each other and are heat-exchanged with each other. The compressor, the heat exchanger, and the expansion unit are interconnected by pipes so that the refrigerant circulates repeatedly therethrough.
However, the conventional water-cooled air conditioner has the following problems.
Since no mean for controlling air heat-exchanged in and discharged from the air conditioner is provided and no device for supplying external fresh air at necessary, it is difficult to make the pleasant indoor space.
Furthermore, since the refrigerant and the cooling water flow in an identical direction in one of cooling and heating modes of the conventional water-cooled air conditioner, the heat exchange efficiency is deteriorated.